Zechariah 14:19
in Zechariah 14This will be the punishment of Egypt and of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
KJV
This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
⋯
This verse in Zechariah 14
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThis shall be the punishment of Egypt,.... Or "sin" (d), as in the original text: rightly is the word rendered "punishment", as it is by the Targum: and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles; which will be one and the same; they shall have no rain, or what answers to it; they shall all have a famine; or it will be different, Egypt shall be punished with a consumption of their flesh, and the other nations with want of rain: the former sense seems best. (d) חטאת "peccatum", V. L.
This site's exposition
shall even go up from year to year
on Zechariah 14:16-19
The survivors of the nations that came against Jerusalem are not destroyed outright but drawn in, going up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles, the harvest feast of ingathering turned into the picture of the nations gathered to God. The penalty for staying away is agricultural, no rain, and Egypt is named by exception since her fields answer to the Nile rather than to rain, yet she too is struck with the same plague if she withholds herself. The bench names the readings, a future and literal worship at a rebuilt temple on the one hand and a figurative picture of universal worship on the other, and the parking order keeps the note from mapping either onto any present nation.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Vers. 18, 19.) And if the family of Egypt does not ascend and does not come, there will be no plague on them, but there will be a punishment by which the Lord will strike all the nations that do not ascend to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. This will be the sin of Egypt, and this will be the sin of all the nations that do not ascend to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
This shall be the punishment --margin, This shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all nations, that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. The same word signifies both sin and the punishment of sin, so close and inseparable is the connexion between them (as Gen. iv. 7 ), and sin is often its own punishment.
God's providences concerning his church are here represented as strangely changing and strangely mixed. Sometimes the tide runs high and strong against them, but presently it turns, and comes to be in favour of them; and God has, for wise and holy ends, set the one over against the other. God here appears against Jerusalem; judgment begins at the house of God.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
This shall be the sin of Egypt and the sin of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles - For before the coming of the Saviour, good perhaps had been in part the excuse of the pagan, that they had been called by none. For no one had preached unto them.
This shall be the punishment - of all nations that come not up - God will have his public worship established everywhere, and those who do not worship him shall lie under his curse.
How the passage was read
On Zechariah 14:16-21On Zechariah 14:16-21
The feast with a future
Of all the feasts, Zechariah gives Tabernacles (Sukkot, the autumn booth-feast) the widest horizon: the surviving nations come up to Jerusalem year by year to keep it. The sages noticed the feast's reach toward the nations from the Torah itself: the seventy bulls offered across Sukkot's seven days (Numbers 29) were read in the Talmud as offerings on behalf of the seventy nations of the world (Sukkah 55b). The feast Israel keeps in a backyard booth carries, in both Testaments' reception, the whole world in view.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Sukkah 55b (the seventy bulls for the seventy nations) · Numbers 29:12–34 (the seventy bulls, counted)
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| זֹ֥את | zot | this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| תִּהְיֶ֖ה | tihyeh | it will be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| חַטַּ֣את | chatat | [the] punishment for sin of | H2403 → | 295 times |
| מִצְרָ֑יִם | mitzrayim | Egypt | H4714 → | 641 times |
| וְחַטַּאת֙ | vechatat | and [the] punishment for sin of | H2403 → | 295 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַגּוֹיִ֔ם | hagoyim | the nations | H1471 → | 561 times |
| אֲשֶׁר֙ | ʾasher | which | H834 → | 5497 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יַֽעֲל֔וּ | yaalu | they will go up | H5927 → | 890 times |
| לָחֹ֖ג | lachog | to celebrate a festival | H2287 → | 16 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| חַ֥ג | chag | [the] festival of | H2282 → | 62 times |
| הַסֻּכּֽוֹת׃ | hasukot | <the> Tabernacles | H5521 → | 31 times |
זֹ֥אתthis
zotH2063 →603 times
תִּהְיֶ֖הit will be
tihyehH1961 →3559 times
חַטַּ֣את[the] punishment for sin of
chatatH2403 →295 times
מִצְרָ֑יִםEgypt
mitzrayimH4714 →641 times
וְחַטַּאת֙and [the] punishment for sin of
vechatatH2403 →295 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
הַגּוֹיִ֔םthe nations
hagoyimH1471 →561 times
אֲשֶׁר֙which
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
יַֽעֲל֔וּthey will go up
yaaluH5927 →890 times
לָחֹ֖גto celebrate a festival
lachogH2287 →16 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
חַ֥ג[the] festival of
chagH2282 →62 times
הַסֻּכּֽוֹת׃<the> Tabernacles
hasukotH5521 →31 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
John 3:19And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
it leads to
- John 8:12
Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
- 2 Thessalonians 2:12
in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.
- John 9:39–41
Then Jesus declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”
- Romans 2:8
But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.
- John 12:43
For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
- John 8:12
Where this verse is studied
About Zechariah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jerome, Commentary on Zechariah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.